US: Tesla to end deal for Toyota’s RAV4 EV

Back in 2012, Tesla Motors announced it signed a deal to supply the battery packs for Toyota’s US bound RAV4 EV and has now reported the deal would conclude at the end of 2014.

Toyota owns 2.4% of the Palo Alto, California-based Tesla, which plans now to build the world’s biggest Li-Ion battery plant and had a deal for the electric car company to supply 2,600 electric RAV4 EVs over the next three years (since 2012) with components – including electric motors and the battery.

“Toyota is expected to end the current RAV4 EV model this year,” Tesla said in a quarterly filing. “Our production activities under this program are expected to end in 2014.”

“This was a project for a specific number of vehicles that we planned to sell for a specific number of years,” said John Hanson, a Toyota spokesman. “We have not made any announcement about the relationship or what we’ll do with Tesla in the future.”

Tesla, which also supplies another one of its investors – Daimler AG – with components for the electric Mercedes B-Class is ramping up for a global expansion of the Model S sales, prepares for the 2015 launch of the electric Model X crossover and later on for the unveiling of a more affordable sedan, to be out on the market in two or three years.